The available bandwidth of a communication network is a parameter that fluctuates over time, sometimes significantly and/or for extensive periods, even when the network is of a domestic or residential type. This available bandwidth can be simultaneously used by different applications or different services, possibly by different users, the functioning of an application or a service can therefore be disturbed or altered when the bandwidth becomes weak. This is particularly the case for applications or services relating to the obtaining of a multimedia content. In fact, if the bandwidth offered at a given instant by a communication network is momentarily incompatible with the bit rate for the transmission of data of a multimedia content, some of the data of this multimedia content may not be received by the requesting content receiver in time, and so the latter must delay the restitution.
As disclosed in EP 2 360 923 A1 directed at adaptive streaming, http adaptive streaming techniques are instructed to generate from a same content several different versions that correspond to different transmission binary bit rates. When a content receiver, connected to a communication network, wants to recover a content via the network, the version of the content that is best adapted to the conditions offered by the communication network at the chosen instant will be received by it, this avoids frozen or degraded images. This continuous selection of versions of a content according to the available bandwidth enables some real time adaptation to the fluctuations of the network for streaming broadcasts.
WO 2011/047335 A1 discloses an adaptive streaming manager that monitors at least one parameter of a user terminal and allow the user terminal, for instance a mobile device, to vary the quality of a multimedia stream on certain conditions such as network bandwidth, battery conditions, direction of travel of the device. As EP 2 360 923 A1, WO 2011/047335 A1 is directed at adapting stream quality according to real time parameters for streaming content.
However, for downloading content, there is no known technique to adapt the download time to network fluctuations or other communication constraints. In the prior art, a user waits until the content is downloaded before using it, at best he is informed of the waiting time. It is understood then that when a user wants to respect certain constraints called communication constraints such as for example the waiting time before the downloaded content is available, the power consumed by the receiver during the download, the quantity of data downloaded (for example to comply with an economic billing model based on the quantity of data received) or the limitation of transmission bandwidth (for example to reserve bandwidth for other services), a solution for downloading contents constrained by these communication parameters would be desirable.